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Hah, the counter shield, the Pokemon world equivalent of break dancing. LOL At least it turned out to be an effective shield against Fantina's attacks, even if it ended up coming back to bite Ash when Fantina had drifblim do the same with will-o-wisp. At least Ash would also use it against Paul later the following season. I also liked Fantina's reactions each time one of her pokemon were knocked out. LOL

I'm also glad that the writers had the good sense to have Jessie compete in a pokemon contest while the battle was going on. At least it got her her second ribbon. They should do that again while there's still time before the Grand Festival in season 12.

Yeah, I was really surprised how Counter Shield worked on Fantina's pokemon. especially on Gengar, with one hit from Buizel it was beaten.

Jessie's contest was the best thing in this episode. a ribbon & a badge in the same time is a great idea of the writers.

This was a great Gym battle, Fantina is really something. I thought Gengar went down a little too quickly. I know Buizel is strong but I think Gengar could have put up a better fight. I liked the Mismagius and Drifloon battles and thought Ash's Counter-Shield technique was inventive and effective. Great episode, Great battle.

Was a good episode, Fantina is tough that's for sure but when Hypnosis is stopped she can be stopped too. Gengar did go down a bit too easily but oh well.

It's good Jessie won that contest, I liked how she did the appeal, she looks good with her hair that long too.

Driftblim was pretty hard, come to think of ir most of the Gym leaders in Sinnoh gives him a harder battle that even has him rematching them (Gardenia even if it's unofficial, Roark, Volkner and Fantina are all I know/remember)

Claims Amber Benson as Bishie
United we stand but separated we fall
As of April 18th, 2015, I met, hugged, took a selfie and a video with Amber Benson. This signature stands to the days where I wished for it, and that dream became reality.

Chimchar and Mismagius' battle was very short, I always thought that Mismagius would be Fantinas last pokemon, but it wasn't. The rest of the gym battle was fine, just felt like it was rushed, especially the battle i pointed out and the last battle with Drifblim.

A really, really good episode, and at this pt, the anime is really on a roll.

The gym itself looks really nice. Has sort of a cathedral feel to it (and I know that's not the right word...but I can't think of how else to describe it), and it's the perfect environment for a ghost type gym. And as always, anything that makes a character/place unique is a positive. Fantina also has her own little quirk, which is screaming Nooo! when her pokemon faints. It's quite the priceless reaction, and I completely forget she did that.

This is a very analytical battle for Ash, and he does a great job. On the spot thinking has generally been his strong point, but normally he's only had to make 1 adjustment or so before the battle turns completely in his favor. That's not quite the case here. He starts out with the advantage thanks to his counter-shield (and this move is the key to the entire match, as Ash tries a little warm-up of using Aqua Jet and Sonicboom, w/o any success; and I get the feeling he wasn't expecting them to land, and he was just trying to see how Fantina would battle-specifically looking for how Hypnosis would be used), and Buizel deals enough damage with the counter-shield that Ash feels comfortable engaging in a bit of a power struggle, with both Buizel and Gengar taking big hits (by the way, water pulse looks so awesome; it's a shame Buizel starting to go away from that move later on). Buizel is the one left standing, and Ash is in the lead.

Mismagius offers a different type of battle, as Fantina makes a pt of telling Ash at the start that Mismagius cannot use Hypnosis. Instead, she's looking to totally thwart Ash's counter-shield, and she's seemingly successful, as Mismagius's Magical Leaf manages to nullify Chimchar's counter shield. This is just what Fantina was looking for, and she gains a great deal of confidence from that. Ash does manage to win this round with another neat combination, having Chimchar launch a flamethrower while using flamewheel so that Fantina has to deal with 2 attacks at once. But the momentum is with Fantina as she's figured out a way around the counter-shield, and as was demonstrated at the beginning of the battle in Ash's warm-up, Ash will have a hard time landing attacks if that's not working.

So out comes Drifblim (I know my spelling is terrible, and I should probably look this up...sorry), and Ash is very, very quickly put on his heels as Pikachu's counter-shield is quickly canceled out. And then Fantina does something really interesting, and she pulls out her own counter-shield. This is something Ash could have taken very badly, as he's put in so much time into developing the move for his pokemon. In just a few minutes, Fantina has not only seemingly figured out how to counter it, but she's even using it enough for her own offense. I really think this is a show of Fantina's ego, in a way, that she's using the countershield herself; it's as if she's showing Ash that it's a nice little trick, but there isn't much to it. I would kind of compare it to (lame reference, but for what it's worth) a DBZ battle, the one b/w Perfect Cell and Trunks, when Cell does the exact same transformation that Trunks does to prove that there's nothing special about the transformation, and that it has a glaring weakness.

Pikachu is surrounded by Drifblim's counter-shield, and Drifblim sneaks in (it's quite sneaky, and I think that's a nice touch-it's seemingly practiced this alot) and grabs Pikachu by the cheeks. Pikachu is unable to launch an electric attack as its cheeks are covered, and Pikachu is quickly put to sleep.

Buizel is up next, and Ash has pretty much given up on the counter shield technique now. Buizel's Aqua Jet manages to overcome Fantina's shield, and we're back to a normal battle. But that's really no good for Ash, since he's had trouble using a precise hitting move to get a hit against Fantina, and that happens again here. Fantina easily outmaneuvers Ash by using Will o Wisp to cause an explosion when matched against Water Pulse, and Drifblim sneaks in and lands a hypnosis.

Things look really bad for Ash for now. Chimchar comes out, launching a Flamethrower to start off, and Fantina uses Will o Wisp as a defense. Ash notices how intense the explosion is, and he smiles as he figures out there's a way he can overcome the counter-shield. Fantina questions why Ash looks so happy (reminds me another lame DBZ reference, but I won't go there), but she finds out soon enough, as Chimchar's flamethrower (I think) breaks through her counter shield and scores a big hit. Ash taunts Fantina a little that she doesn't know all there is to counter-shields, which I think he's basically saying she over-estimated her abilities to use his move. Fantina laughs a little, but she's sure she'll still pull this battle out. But I think that little reprimand from Ash is a really big deal for him; I think this moment, right here, is where he absolutely gains the confidence that he's a really good trainer, and becomes unafraid of trying things out. Fantina seemingly had Ash's move completely figured out, and even was using it against Ash proficiently with almost no practice (Fantina even mocks Ash that this move is stronger than anything Ash can come up-and personally, I like this show of arrogance from Fantina. Roark did it a little too back at the 1st gym. The show of arrogance maybe a fault, but it's a fault that makes them feel like human beings. Trainers this strong probably have a bit of an inflated ego. Again, that's why I'm so amused by how easily Cynthia has beaten 2 members of the elite 4 so far.). So if a move that Ash and his pokemon worked so hard on is THAT easy to master, than maybe Ash just isn't a very good, or creative trainer. I think he really starts to feel that, and he expresses that when he tells Pikachu that its hard work will pay off sometime, even if it didn't in this battle. But he has to be wondering about his merits right now as a trainer, and his realization here gives him a huge boost of confidence. He doesn't have to worry about Fantina's "mockery" of his move anymore, b/c she can't use it as well as he can. And so, his style of training can work.

But he's still in a bit of a bind over how to deal the finishing blow to Fantina. So he comes up with a nice little strategy. Head on attacks have been working in Fantina's favor (except for some of Buizel's attacks), and Ash has had trouble using a precise move to block Hypnosis when it's come his way. Counter-shield allowed him to not have to worry about precisely locating where hypnosis is coming from, but since that's not really an option now, he needs to figure out another way. So he has Chimchar use Dig to get behind Drifblim, and it's able to blast a flamethrower just as Drifblim is turning around to use hypnosis- Ash knows exactly where the attack is coming from now. The attack scores a ko, and Ash wins this really impressive battle.

Jessie also wins her 2nd ribbon, which was a surprise back when this episode came out. That's one of the things in retrospect that maybe lost when rewatching Sinnoh, and that's how big of a surprise some of these events were.

I need to say something about Brock and Dawn. Brock gives compliments where he sees compliments are due, I think. Dawn just wants Ash to win, and she's more into how things are going on Ash's side of the battle. And she's quite impressed with how Ash uses Chimchar, saying his strategy is amazing. Brock, though, says that's typical Ash. Maybe, in fairness to Brock, if Dawn had traveled with Ash as long as Brock had, she maybe would view Ash's battles as he does. But I also think that's part of the charm of Dawn, and Paul to an extent. She does a great job of reminding me that many of the things Ash does that I've taken for granted, are really something remarkable. At the beginning of the region, she thought of Ash as a bit reckless, but she's seen now there's a lot more to him than that. And Paul eventually does, too. But it's seeing them realize it, that reminds you of how special Ash really is, and also how he's improved from previous regions. Maybe that's also something that should be said in Brock's defense, and that he's seen Ash grow the whole time. It's alot easier to be impressed with stuff seeing the mature Sinnoh Ash, and not having to watch him step by step starting from the mistakes and strategies he used in Kanto.

This episode was very cool. It was great to see Buizel's, Pikachu's and Chimchar's defensive shields, they were impressive and effective. It was funny when Fantina yells "Nooooooooo!" after each of her Pokemon faint. Buizel vs Gengar was a very neat battle. It was odd how Ash tried to use Sonicboom on the Ghost-Type Pokemon... Buizel's spinning Water Gun worked really well, it looked like he was doing a break dance at the same time. Chimchar's fire shield on the other hand was foiled by Mismagius' Magical Leaf. It was cool how Chimchar combined Flamethrower and Flame Wheel to defeat Mismagius with 2 attacks at once. Drifblim used its own shield to block Pikachu's shield. Pikachu unfortunately became trapped, and went down the same way it has before. Buizel was able to break the shield, but wasn't able to get moves in and was taken down with the Hypnosis combo as well. Chimchar was able to break through the shield and not affected by Will-O-Wisp, being a Fire Pokemon. It was great how it used Dig and surpised Drifblim with a Flamethrower for a KO.

Yay more Barry. I liked how the episode kept on flipping from the gym battle to Jessie doing the contest. Glad to see the return of the counter sheild. Also glad to see Chimchar be the star of the gym battle instead of Builzel like he has been for the past two gyms. Overall cool episode8.5/10

Ash tries to use SonicBoom on a Gengar- wth? Then Fantina actually bothers telling Gengar to dodge, using his Levitate ability. Pretty sure that's for ground type moves. Then Chimchar's Dig works on Drifblim.

? Well, it's better than Unova's gym battles, but still not all that great. 2/10

Man this episode was and still is a great gym battle. The writers handled TR the best way. Keep them the hell away from the gym. I remember when it first aired how people were shocked at Jessie's second ribbon, and it was then when we started to speculate her in the GF.

This was easily the best gym battle of Sinnoh or perhaps overall (Canalave was a close second in Sinnoh) for me.

Satoshi finally got away with hypnosis and win this battle. Overall a nice episode and the victory is clean too in my opinion. Just one small flaw is that Musashi's won in the contest is too brief. I expect she had a fierce fight with Hikari.

I loved that Barry was here to watch Ash's battle with Fantina; seeing his reactions made everything more intense imho. Anyway, Gengar vs. Buizel looked bad for Ash until he used the Counter Shield and I was pleased to see Chimchar beat Fantina's Mismagius with a similar strategy. I was surprised when Drifblim beat Pikachu however, but alas.

I loved that Barry was here to watch Ash's battle with Fantina; seeing his reactions made everything more intense imho. Anyway, Gengar vs. Buizel looked bad for Ash until he used the Counter Shield and I was pleased to see Chimchar beat Fantina's Mismagius with a similar strategy. I was surprised when Drifblim beat Pikachu however, but alas.

When I watched the first battle they had, I thought it was eluding to Pikachu starring in this gym, since he caused it to evolve and was the only one to damage Drifblim before it evolved. I think Pikachu should have starred in this gym, especially since Chimchar went on to starring in 3 gyms this region. Either way, it was a good gym battle.

smh at the people early on saying Pikachu failed. Yes, he lost, but it was only because Fantina figured out how to use Ash's strategy against him.

With Ash utilizing his new Counter Shield, he practically breezed through his first opponents, but once Drifblim gets into the picture, that's when things get tough lol. Pikachu should've used either Iron Tail or Volt Tackle instead of spamming Thunderbolt.

I'm lost on why James and Meowth thought they'd be "wallowing in dough" just because Jess won a ribbon. Since when do you get money for winning a contest? It just doesn't make sense. Especially since this is never mentioned again and they seem happy she won her second ribbon.

Well I would've liked seeing Jessie's full Contest as well, but I can see how the pacing of this episode made that impossible since Ash's battle against Fantina took so much time, so the Contest didn't get much screentime.